This invention relates to the art of tube flaring tools and, more particularly, to an improved flare bar assembly for a tube flaring tool.
Tube flaring tools of the character to which the present invention is directed are well known and, basically, include a yoke assembly comprising a yoke body having a window or opening therethrough providing support for a flare bar assembly comprised of a pair of flare bar members having laterally opposed inner sides provided with opposed recesses for supporting a tube to be flared. The flare bar assembly is suitably clamped in place in the yoke window for the tube engaged between the bars to be in coaxial alignment with a flaring cone supported on the yoke body for displacement into engagement with the tube end to achieve flaring of the latter. Following the flaring operation, the flare bar assembly is released and removed from the yoke window, after which the flare bars are laterally separated to release the flared tube therefrom.
Generally, the flare bars of such flare bar assemblies are pivotally interconnected at or adjacent one of the opposite ends thereof for lateral pivotal displacement about a common pivot axis. Such pivotal displacement of the flare bars is between open and closed positions in which the flare bars are respectively positioned to receive and to engage and support a tube to be flared. Heretofore, such pivotal interconnection of the flare bars has required special machining of the ends of the flare bars and/or the use of a pivot pin or pins separate from the flare bars, whereby the flare bar assemblies have been structurally complex, have required the assembly of an excessive number of component parts and, accordingly, have been undesirably expensive. Most often, the ends of the flare bars opposite the pivotally interconnected ends are cooperatively interengaged when the flare bars are closed to maintain alignment of the bars in a plane transverse to the pivot axis. For example, the laterally inner sides of the flare bars can be provided with an interengaging pin and recess arrangement for this purpose. Such pin and recess arrangements, or other arrangements for the same purpose, undesirably add to the expense of the assembly.
Further, flare bar assemblies heretofore provided in which the flare bars are pivotal about a common pivot axis have required the use of a pivot pin arrangement which is either structurally fixed against disassembly of the flare bars from one another, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,661,367 to Helminiak for example, and/or have required the use of structurally dissimilar flare bar members, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,617 to Meese for example. In the first case, the damaging or breaking of one of the flare bar members necessitates replacement of the entire flare bar assembly, and the requirement for structurally dissimilar flare bars not only precludes interchangeability but also requires the production and storage for availability of both parts. These features disadvantageously add to both the production and maintenance or replacement costs with respect to the component parts and the flare bar assembly as a unit.